William Anderson Alexander (June 6, 1889 – April 23, 1950) was an College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.

Contents

Player1

Coach2

Legacy3

Coaching tree3.1

Head coaching record4

Football4.1

References5

External links6

Player

Alexander played football under civil engineering. Valedictorian of his class, he was also a brother of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.[5][6]

Coach

"Old Aleck," as Alexander was called, succeeded John Heisman as the head coach at Georgia Tech in April 1920.[6] Alexander had been an assistant coach for Heisman and a math teacher in the classroom at Georgia Tech.[3] The Technique said of him:[6]

“

Since Coach Alex has taken charge there is a change in the team. The youngest coach in major football, he is probably the most popular, and bids fair to prove himself the peer of them all. Not only is Coach the idol of members of the team, but of the student body as well.

”

As a new coach, he led Georgia Tech to three Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles (1920, 1921, 1922) and its second national championship in 1928. Alexander was the first college football coach to place his teams in the four major post-season bowl games of the time: Sugar, Cotton, Orange and Rose. His teams won three of the four bowls.[3]

Describing the most spectacular play he ever saw, he cites one from the 1925 game against Vanderbilt. Star back 1928 college football season. It was Tech's second national title in 11 years.[8][9]

During the previous season, Alexander instituted "the Plan." Tech and UGA had just renewed their annual rivalry game in 1925 after an eight-year hiatus. Georgia was highly rated to start the 1927 season and justified their rating throughout the season going 9–0 in their first 9 games. Alexander's plan was to minimize injuries by benching his starters early no matter the score of every game before the UGA finale. On December 3, 1927, UGA rolled into Atlanta on the cusp of a National Title. Tech's well rested starters shut out the Bulldogs 12–0 and ended any chance of UGA's first National Title.[8]

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